#Ryo #Rowen #RoninWarriors

mst3kgifs:

Mother Angelica Aerobics.

Elon Musk is having a very bad week. The man who bought Twitter for $44 billion to secure unaccountable power over public discourse is discovering what unaccountable power actually looks like when wielded by someone who understands dominance better than he does.

Trump just stripped SpaceX of a government contract and handed it to Jeff Bezos. Musk’s response? Rage-tweeting at Trump officials, including the immortal question “why are you gay”—the rhetorical sophistication we’ve come to expect from the richest man-child on the planet having a public meltdown because Daddy won’t give him what he wants.

This isn’t just delicious schadenfreude, though it is that. This is the neo-reactionary project—the Silicon Valley movement to restore hierarchy and reject democratic constraints—consuming its architects in real-time. A perfect demonstration that the oligarchs funding authoritarian politics fundamentally misunderstood what they were building.

They thought they were buying hierarchy with themselves at the top. They’re discovering that authoritarian hierarchy doesn’t work that way. It requires constant demonstration of dominance through arbitrary humiliation of subordinates. There are no stable positions. No guaranteed seats at the table. No amount of money that exempts you from being the example.

Musk thought he’d bought partnership. He bought the privilege of being degraded publicly.

This is what Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin and the entire Silicon Valley neo-reactionary apparatus never quite explained to their fellow travelers: In the systems they’re building, someone has to be subordinate. The hierarchy they’re restoring doesn’t stop conveniently at their own necks. And Trump—whatever else he is—understands this instinctively. He knows that power in authoritarian systems isn’t demonstrated through competent governance or policy achievement. It’s demonstrated through the arbitrary exercise of dominance over those who thought themselves powerful.

Musk genuinely believed his wealth made him Trump’s equal. That his “genius” and his billions and his control of critical infrastructure (Twitter, SpaceX, Starlink) secured him a permanent seat at the table. He thought he was Roy Cohn but permanent. He thought “First Buddy” meant something.

He’s learning what Roy Cohn learned: You’re useful until you’re not. And when you’re not, the humiliation is public, arbitrary, and designed to demonstrate to everyone else what happens when you forget your place.

The contract going to Bezos isn’t about SpaceX’s technical capabilities or cost-effectiveness or any rational criterion. That’s the point. It’s about Trump demonstrating he can take from Musk and give to his rival for no reason except to show he can. And Musk—for all his billions, for all his companies, for all his supposed genius—can do exactly nothing except tweet impotently while the adults laugh at him.

This is the system they built. This is what they wanted—rule by the strong, unencumbered by democratic constraints, where power flows from dominance rather than from consent. They just thought they’d be the ones doing the dominating.

Here’s what makes it particularly delicious: Musk can’t even exit. All that crypto-libertarian fantasy about “exit” and seasteading and network states—it was always cope. You can’t exit power when the person wielding it controls access to the government contracts your companies depend on, the regulatory environment your businesses operate in, and the geopolitical decisions that determine whether your satellites stay in orbit.

Thiel’s dictum that “competition is for losers” works when you’re the monopolist. But Trump is the ultimate monopolist—of attention, of dominance, of the willingness to humiliate anyone anywhere for any reason. There’s no competing with that. Only submitting or being destroyed.

And Musk will submit. He’ll apologize. He’ll grovel. He’ll delete the tweets and post something obsequious about how President Trump is making brilliant decisions for America. Because the alternative is watching everything he’s built get systematically dismantled by someone who understands that in authoritarian systems, the point isn’t good governance—it’s demonstrating who’s subordinate.

The man who bought Twitter because he wanted absolute control is learning what absolute control actually means when someone else has it. The irony would be poetic if it weren’t so terrifying. Because this isn’t just about Musk’s bruised ego. This is about oligarchs discovering that the authoritarian systems they funded don’t stop at the people they don’t like. Hierarchy has teeth. And those teeth point in every direction.

Ask yourself: in the system you’re part of, are you ever really at the top—or always potentially the subordinate? The architects of neo-feudalism are learning the answer the hard way.

This is what authoritarian dominance looks like—cultivated by the powerful, weaponized by the dominant, and turned back on its architects.

Welcome to the world you built, Elon. How’s it feel?

Mike Brock is a former tech exec who was on the leadership team at Block. Originally published at his Notes From the Circus.

Shock and dismay have already begun as Americans face next year’s health insurance costs—and it looks like everyone will be in for some grim numbers.

So far, much of the attention has been on the stratospheric prices that Americans might see on plans they buy from Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Critical tax credits for those plans are set to expire at the end of the year, and, on top of that, insurers have proposed a median 18 percent price increase for 2026. With the higher prices and a loss of credits, some Americans could see their monthly premiums more than double.

In an analysis last month, nonpartisan health policy group KFF estimated that, on average, ACA marketplace premiums would rise 114 percent, going from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.

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The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Theo de Raadt has announced the release of OpenBSD 7.8, the latest of the regular biannual updates of the project's free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. This version adds support for Raspberry Pi 5, among many other changes: "We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD....

Turner died in March after serving in the Texas House, Houston City Hall and Congress. According to the estate sale organizers, his furniture, artwork, books, figurines, awards and collectibles will be up for auction. 

Houston city leaders have approached the mural’s fate cautiously. The city council member for the area says she has “absolutely no idea” whether it will stay or not.

In brief: In today’s post we discuss rainfall amounts for this weekend, when we are likely to see our greatest totals in a quite some time. We also provide an update on our Fall Day celebration, and look ahead to a stronger front next week.

Eric, isn’t Fall Day on Saturday?

Yes, it is. Somehow, the “geniuses” who run Space City Weather scheduled Fall Day for Saturday October 25th, a day when the region has its best chance of widespread rain in quite literally months. The reality, of course, is that such events take a lot of planning (which Reliant has really been helping us with), including scheduling Midtown Park, ordering all sorts of things, and inviting a lot of different groups to come make the day special for everyone. So we selected October 25th earlier this summer.

So what are we going to do? For now we are still planning to hold Fall Day from 10 am to Noon CT on Saturday, pending the forecast. There remains a fair bit of uncertainty in the timing of the storms on Saturday (they could be pre-dawn, they could be mid-morning smack during Fall Day, or around noon or later). If the gathering poses any danger to people we are going to cancel it of course, but we want to wait a little while longer to make a final decision. Matt and I know better than anyone how forecasts can shift. Thanks for your interest and patience.

Wednesday

We should have held Fall Day today! It’s pleasant outside this morning, with fairly low humidity and temperatures in the 60s. With modest easterly winds throughout the day, humidity will remain low as high temperatures reach about 80 degrees beneath mostly sunny skies. Humidity levels will start to creep back up overnight, so although inland areas probably will drop into the upper 50s or lower 60s, coastal areas may well be a bit warmer late tonight.

Thursday

As the onshore flow resumes we may see a few more clouds in the sky, and humidity will go up as well. Highs likely will crest in the mid-80s before a mild night with lows in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees. There is a slight chance of showers near the coast.

Friday and Saturday

We should see some sunshine on Friday morning, but clouds will start to build later in the day. An upper-level low pressure system and an accompanying front at the surface will advance toward the area, and overall dynamics support the development of showers and thunderstorms to go along with it. The timing is our real point of uncertainty. Generally what I expect is scattered showers and thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and night (highs in the 80s on Friday). At some point a line of storms will push through the area along with the surface front, but whether that happens earlier Saturday or later in the day, we just don’t know yet. But at some point we’re going to see moderate to heavy rainfall. Although totals will vary widely, most of the region should pick up 1 to 4 inches. We hope to have better details about all of this for you in tomorrow’s forecast update, when we begin to have improved high resolution data. Anyway, highs on Saturday will likely be in the 70s (at least we got that part of Fall Day correct, hah).

Sunday

Rain chances won’t go away during the second half of the weekend, but they should be decidedly lower than Saturday. Expect a high near 80 degrees, with overnight lows in the 60s.

Next week

The first half of next week will probably see highs in the low- to mid-80s with muggier air before a stronger front arrives (Wednesday, maybe?) The details of this are still pretty fuzzy, but we can almost assuredly expect to see some much drier and colder air.

Karine Jean-Pierre has spent most of her career as a Democrat, working on four presidential campaigns and serving in the Obama and Biden administrations. But her days as a member of the Democratic Party are over and that’s the focus of her new book, “Independent." Amna Nawaz sat down with Jean-Pierre to discuss the book and why she left the party.

The Vatican is expected to soon announce that it will return a few dozen artifacts sought by Indigenous communities in Canada.

A report says millions of tons of discarded U.S. electronics are being shipped overseas each month. It says that much of it goes to Southeast Asian countries not prepared to safely handle hazardous waste.

When the government shutdown ends, Donald Trump will have succeeded in staging the single biggest expansion of presidential power in American history because of the single largest shift in the constitutional balance of powers ever. 

In fact, he (but more particularly, his team) has been so successful at maneuvering through this shutdown that there’s no reason for them to end it. Democrats have called on Trump to get more involved in the negotiations. They’ve gotten little more than a shrug in return. The Republicans are winning, and Vegas card players know never to leave a winning hand on the table. 

The Republicans are using two of the big tools to shape governmental action: the power of the purse, which funds what government does; and the power of government bureaucrats, who make it work. The former is the engine. The latter are the wheels. And by vastly expanding the administration’s leverage over both, it—especially OMB Director Russ Vought—is in the driver’s seat. 

This is vastly more important than Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an unguided bulldozer rambling through government. Vought’s strategy is all out of a single piece of carefully woven cloth. 

Start with the engine: the federal budget. Madison, in Federalist #58, made it clear why the founders, concerned with the prospect of a strong executive, vested the power of the purse with the Congress. It was, he wrote, the “most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people”.  There are two vital components of this: the president cannot spend money for purposes not authorized in law; and that the president cannot pick which programs he wants to spend money on and on which he does not.  

There are laws, which Georgetown law professor Eloise Pasachoff has referred to as the “power of the purse statutes”, that reinforce each of those constitutional imperatives. The Anti-Deficiency Act, passed in 1870, creates penalties for the unlawful spending of money that has not been appropriated, or not appropriated for that purpose. The 1974 Impoundment Control Act creates the only legal avenue for the president to refuse to spend money that has been appropriated. The Vought strategy violates both.

For the first almost eight months of the administration, the sole emphasis has been on the latter set of violations. In most cases where the administration attempted to cancel programs, it did so without following the procedures set up by the ICA. In the shutdown, the administration has crossed the ADA lines 

With the deadline for the military’s payroll looming, Trump ordered the Pentagon “to use for the purpose of pay and allowances any funds appropriated by the Congress that remain available for expenditure in Fiscal Year 2026.” The administration said it was going to use funds in the Pentagon’s research and development account. DOD did indeed have unexpended R&D funds, but Congress had not authorized draining the R&D account to pay the military, and that’s a clear violation of the ADA. As Bobby Kogan at the Center for American Progress posted on Bluesky,  this mechanism “is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.”

How does it risk breaking everything? When the administration can both decide it can spend money from any budget account on anything it wants, AND that it does not have to spend money appropriated by Congress if it does not want to, there are no limits to the budgetary powers possessed by the president. This is exactly the kind of executive overreach that worried the founders. 

The Trump administration, as one of us has concluded, “appears to understand that control over the federal budget is central to control over the entire federal government.” The budget maneuvers mark a huge attack on the norms that have defined the constitutional  separation of powers for 238 years. 

Then let’s move to the wheels: government employees. DOGE had already virtually eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development, large parts of the Department of Education and other parts of the government deemed “woke.” 

But when the shutdown began, the firings ramped up. OMB had already asked for plans from agencies about employees who should be RIFed—fired through a “reduction in force.” The firings began with a short post from Vought, a few days into the shutdown: “The RIFs have begun.” He followed that up with more than 4,000 RIFs, and it took digging into a federal court filing to find out where they were occurring, since there was no transparency from OMB on this important step. 

It didn’t take long for a scramble to begin. The Department of Health and Human Services at first said that 982 people got RIF notices. Then word came that the notices went out to 1,760 employees, including 596 employees at the Centers for Disease Control, along with more workers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families, among others. 

The administration used the RIF process to accelerate its planned shutdown of the Department of Education by laying off more employees. It slashed employment at the IRS by 1,446 people, on top of the 25 percent of the workforce who were DOGEd. In just a few days, the administration eliminated many workers at agencies that were at the bull’s eye of its strategy to transform the executive branch. 

With the purse nowhere to be found during the shutdown, Vought seized its power, and his decisions in the fog of the shutdown means there’s no accountability.  

The country’s founders had anticipated the risk of executive power but counted on Congress’s control of the power of the purse to rein in the irresistible instincts for expanding presidential power. One of the biggest champions of the executive, Alexander Hamilton, pointed to the importance of Congress’s role. “The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated,” he wrote in Federalist 78. But that only works if Congress chooses to exercise that command—and that it is actually meets to do so. 

As always, when the supporter of the Congress, Madison, and the champion of the executive, Hamilton, agree, there’s a very powerful lesson the founders teach us. They’d be aghast at the government that emerges from the shutdown. And given the way the ongoing battles are going for the administration, there’s no reason for the administration to settle the shutdown any time soon. 

Philip G. Joyce is professor of Public Policy and Donald F. Kettl is Professor Emeritus, both at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. They have been working with colleagues on Reform for Results, a nonpartisan coalition of public policy experts dedicated to advancing the government’s mission within the American tradition of the rule of law.

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The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has officially declared October 22, 2025, as Internet Archive Day in the City and County of San Francisco. Sponsored by Supervisor Connie Chan (District 1), the resolution passed unanimously in recognition of the Internet Archive’s extraordinary milestone—preserving 1 trillion web pages. The resolution celebrates the Archive’s enduring mission to provide “universal access to all knowledge” and our deep roots in the city where it was founded nearly three decades ago.

Before the Board meeting, supporters took to the steps of City Hall for a rally celebrating the resolution and achievement. Speakers included:

• Supervisor Connie Chan, District 1
• Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian, Internet Archive
• Michael Lambert, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco
• Swilk, artist in residence, Internet Archive

From our headquarters in the Richmond District, the Internet Archive has grown into a global library of digital culture, preserving not only the web, but also books, music, video, and software for generations to come. As the city marks Internet Archive Day, San Franciscans join a worldwide community in celebrating the power of preservation and the shared effort to ensure that the web we’ve built remains accessible to everyone.

Celebrate With the Internet Archive

To mark the occasion, the Internet Archive is hosting a street party and livestream celebration tonight at our Richmond District headquarters. Join us in person for live music, food, and festivities—or tune in online from anywhere in the world to be part of this milestone moment. Together, we’ll celebrate 1 trillion webpages archived and look ahead to the next trillion in our shared digital history.

Register for in person or livestream tickets!

NEW HAVEN, CT—Shedding light on the animal’s compassionate nature and pop-culture savvy, a study published Wednesday in the journal Behavioral Ecology And Sociobiology found that elephants mourn the cancellation of their favorite TV shows. “The research we conducted over the course of many years in Botswana confirmed that elephants experience a period of deep sorrow when Hollywood executives pull the plug on their most beloved dramas, comedies, and competition reality series,” said study co-author and Yale University zoologist Charlotte Pham, adding that the behavior was first observed in 1983 when a group of African bush elephants solemnly formed a circle around a TV to watch the last episode of M*A*S*H. “They perform complex grieving rites, such as showing reverence for The Sex Lives Of College Girls by covering the DVD box set with dirt and branches. Elephants form lasting relationships with TV shows over the seasons, and consistently return to the grassland spot where they first learned of the cancellation of Suits LA to pay their respects. In addition, the creatures use their advanced cognitive abilities to wage complex online campaigns aimed at getting The Equalizer back on the air. It is perhaps the most haunting phenomenon in all of nature.” The study also found that elephants hold a separate mourning ritual years after a show’s cancellation in which they invite their buddies over to watch old episodes and reminisce about their youth.

The post New Study Finds Elephants Mourn Cancellation Of Favorite TV Shows appeared first on The Onion.

CHICAGO—Revealing a highly calibrated system that he has fine-tuned over a lifetime of trial and error, local man Ken Stafford told reporters Wednesday that he has a favorite hot dog place for every level of sobriety. “Richie’s is completely disgusting garbage unless you’re absolutely hammered, then it’s, like, the best fucking spot in the world,” said Stafford, who, in what amounts to years of self-administered longitudinal research, ethnographic field work, and controlled taste trials, now has at least 12 “go-to dog spots” depending on precisely how intoxicated he is, ranging from “tipsy” to “good enough to drive” to “completely fucking shit-faced.” “Mustard Club is delicious for when you are buzzed at lunch, but the place closes at 9 p.m., their hot dogs are, like, 11$, and they have vegetables on them and shit. Now, if you want something real quick before heading out to the bars, you’ll definitely want to head to Schmidty Dogs and get the Bacon Boy. But trust me, if it’s 2:30 a.m. and you’re looking to scarf something down real quick before passing out, you gotta get the cheesy dog at Bun Run—but I can only have one of those when I’m seven or eight drinks in. And when you’re hungover the next morning, nothing will cure you like the breakfast dog at Chico’s.” According to third-party data, Stafford’s overwhelmingly most-visited hot dog place was actually the 7-Eleven at the gas station by his apartment, though he doesn’t knowingly consider it a favorite spot, as he only goes there when he’s completely blackout drunk.

The post Man Has Favorite Hot Dog Place For Every Level Of Sobriety appeared first on The Onion.

CHICOPEE, MA—Saying that she couldn’t recall a time of familial peace since the early ’90s, area woman Melissa Maynard confirmed Wednesday that her parents were actively feuding with at least one aunt at all times. “If they’re not fighting with Aunt Linda, then they’re definitely badmouthing Aunt Michelle,” said Maynard, explaining that the most recent dispute began when Aunt Michelle refused to chip in for the shrimp cocktail appetizer ordered for a family gathering at a restaurant. “But before this, my parents didn’t talk to Aunt Linda for a whole year because they were mad that she inherited my grandfather’s snowblower instead of Mom. And now all of a sudden they’re taking a vacation to visit her in Cincinnati like nothing ever happened. I bet that as soon as they patch things up with Aunt Michelle, they’ll reignite the long-standing argument they’ve been having with Aunt Susan ever since she declined to invite them to her small wedding in 1995.” At press time, Maynard announced that her parents were feuding with all three aunts simultaneously.

The post Parents Feuding With At Least One Aunt At All Times appeared first on The Onion.

Some time ago, I discussed the intended uses of the icons in progman.exe and moricons.dll and we even looked at those icons (progman.exe, moricons.dll).

But what about pifmgr.dll?

The pifmgr.dll file was added in Windows 95. Its job was, as the name might suggest, to manage PIF files, which are Program Information Files that describe how to set up a virtual MS-DOS session for running a specific application.

Whereas the icons in moricons.dll were created with specific programs in mind (list) and the icons in progman.exe were created for general categories of applications, the story behind the icons in pifmgr.dll is much less complicated.

The icons in pifmgr.dll were created just for fun. They were not created with any particular programs in mind, with one obvious exception. They were just a fun mix of icons for people to use for their own homemade shortcut files.

	MS-DOS logo
	Umbrella
	Play block
	Newspaper
	Apple with bite
	Cloud with lightning
	Tuba
	Beach ball
	Light bulb
	Architectural column
	Money
	Desktop computer
	Keyboard
	Filing cabinet
	Desk calendar
	Clipped documents
	Crayon with document
	Pencil
	Pencil with document
	Dice
	Window with clouds
	Eye chart with magnifying class
	Dominos
	Hand holding playing cards
	Soccer ball
	Purse
	Decorated tree Wizard’s hat with wand
	Race car with checkered flag
	Cruise ship
	Biplane
	Inflatable raft
	Traffic light
	Rabbit
	Satellite dish
	Crossed swords
	Sword and shield
	Flail weapon
	Dynamite and plunger

I don’t know if it was intentional, but I find it interesting that clouds were the theme image for Windows 95, and we have a window with clouds. At the same time we have an apple with a bite, but the bite is on the left hand side, as opposed to the right hand side in the logo of Apple Computer.

Coincidence? Tip of the hat? Subtle jab? You decide.

The post What about the icons in pifmgr.dll? appeared first on The Old New Thing.

The “hockey stick graph” is a graph which shows slow initial growth, followed by a rapid linear increase. The resulting shape resembles a hockey stick, with the blade of the stick represented by the nearly-flat initial section, and the handle of the stick represented by the rapid linear increase once sales take off.

All sales forecasts have this hockey stick shape because the people who do sales forecasts are all optimists.

The Microsoft finance division has their own variation on the hockey stick: The hockey stick on wheels.

Consider a team which presents their forecasts in the form of a hockey stick graph. They come back the next year with their revised forecasts, and they are the same as last year’s forecast, just delayed one year. If you overlay this revised hockey stick forecast on top of the previous year’s forecast, it looks like what happened is that the hockey stick slid forward one year. When this happens, the finance people jokingly call it a “hockey stick on wheels” because it looks like somebody bolted wheels onto the bottom of the hockey stick graph and is just rolling it forward by one year each year.

Net profit, net profit.
I love ya, net profit.
You’re always a year away.

An example of a hockey stick on wheels is the first few years of the infamous Itanium sales forecast chart. Notice that the first four lines are basically the same, just shifted forward by one year. It is only at the fifth year that the shape of the line changes.

The post Microspeak: The hockey stick on wheels appeared first on The Old New Thing.

#Kento #Rowen #RoninWarriors

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. How much should I expect to hang out with my coworker on a week-long work trip?

I have an upcoming work trip that I’m feeling a little anxious about, mostly because I’m unsure how to handle the social side of things.

It’s a week-long trip with just one coworker. They seem lovely, but we haven’t worked closely together before. I’ve traveled with larger groups in the past, and in those situations the unspoken norm seemed to be: do dinner together at least once or twice, and apart from that, it’s okay to stay in or go out on your own if you prefer. After all, there are others in the group they can spend time with if they’d like.

With just the two of us, though, I feel more responsible for their experience, and I’m not sure what’s expected. Should I plan for us to spend afternoons and dinners together every day, or is it okay to build in some solo time? I want this to be a positive experience for both of us, but as someone who’s neurodivergent, it’s hard for me to read the social cues. What’s the typical etiquette for a trip like this?

Dinner once or twice during the week but doing your own thing the rest of the time is a pretty typical way to handle it, even when it’s just two of you. You can set those expectations early on in a warm way by saying something on the first day like, “Do you want to do dinner together one night this week while we’re here?” That way you’re offering it! You’re being warm and friendly. But you’re also setting the expectation that it won’t be every night.

Related:
can I do my own thing in the evenings on a business trip with colleagues?

2. How do I deal with my boss’s email overload?

I work at a company that is very email-heavy, which means that we get a lot of emails and we are expected to read and respond relatively quickly. The problem is that my boss, who is a senior leader, is so inundated with emails that he regularly misses things (I would say he misses a quarter to a third of things I forward him, and at least one-third of external emails that we’re both on from new senders).

Right now, my strategy if I need a quick response is to use our chat tool to follow up. Half the time, he’ll say he didn’t see the email and I’ll need to forward it so it’s at the top of his inbox. But if it’s, for example, an email that we’ve set up a meeting to discuss, often I’ll start the meeting and realize he hasn’t read the email, and then we’ll lose 10–15 minutes while I find the thread, send it, and wait for him to receive and then read it.

It feels like there has to be a better way, and he knows this is an issue and I think would be happy to hear strategies. But I think the strategies I use (a custom priority inbox and judicious use of filters) won’t work for him, because it took me time to set it up when I started, and I do have more time in my day to keep on top of emails. Do you have any other suggestions? Or do I just accept this is how it is, and keep using strategies to work around it?

Accept that this is how he is and be proactive about working around it. That means things like assuming that there’s a good chance he won’t see emails until you specifically follow up on them, assuming he won’t have read emails before meetings (unless you chat him and specifically ask him to, which is worth trying when it’s important), using good email “hygiene” (i.e., keeping messages as short as possible and with the upshot/action needed right up top) and communicating with him in ways that aren’t email as much as possible. For example, can you save some of these items up for regular check-in meetings and not bother emailing about them at all?

That might not be ideal, but if he’s going to miss them anyway, your life will be easier if you plan for it to happen.

Related:
my boss hardly reads emails and says it’s my job to follow up with her when something’s important
my boss is impossible to reach when I need responses
my boss won’t answer my emails

3. My coworker said I look like JD Vance

I work for government, and it is obviously a professional environment. As such, comments on appearance are very rare though people will give well intentioned compliments on new haircuts, clothing etc.

Today in front of others out of nowhere, a colleague got excited and said that I look like JD Vance. I am around the same age and am a white guy with facial hair so there is some similarity but it was kind of weird and was definitely awkward with others around and with the current political environment.

Is this comment appropriate in office or am I just overreacting because I detest JD Vance and find the comparison unflattering? Also, the colleague who made the comment seemed to not think commenting on appearance that way was strange — should I try to correct them? At the time I was baffled so didn’t say much.

Eh, it’s the kind of thing that sometimes gets said. Appearance assessments shouldn’t be made at work (and if your coworker had written in asking if he should tell you that you look like JD Vance, I would have told him not to), but I don’t think it’s so egregious that you need to go back and say something about it now. (However, if you had wanted to indicate you were displeased in the moment, you could have said, “I promise you we’re quite different.”)

If he continues to harp on it, then yes, at that point you should ask him to give it a rest, but hopefully it’s not going to keep coming up.

4. We’re asked to chip in for gift cards for departing executives

I have a question about a new practice at my org (a mid-size scale-up with 500-1000 employees). Recently, several VP/C-suite executives have left, and it’s become standard to send a virtual card for all staff to sign and a virtual gift card for optional donations. The latest card had a follow-up urging everyone to sign by tomorrow, which I didn’t do on the basis I’d never met her.

There’s no guidance (other than calling it optional) on who should be gifting, but it bothers me that high-earning executives are receiving crowd-sourced gift cards. I wouldn’t be against the company seeing them off with a gift — these people have generally made an impact. Instead they’re getting around £200-£400 in donations from people almost exclusively below them. Typically, low-level employees have a gift card that has gone out to those they’ve worked with, not the entire organization.

Am I wrong to feel uncomfortable about this? Most people don’t seem to want to gift, as there are usually only about 25 donations. Isn’t it strange to ask? I want to mention it to my manager but it feels a little petty.

It’s not petty at all. It’s gross to ask lower-level employees to chip in for a goodbye gift to high-level, better paid executives (especially ones they haven’t even met, but it’s gross either way). It sounds like most of your coworkers agree, based on the low number of donations.

If the company wants to send off departing executives with a gift, they can pay for it themselves.

Whether or not it makes sense to mention to your manager depends on what your manager is like, your relationship with her, and your sense of how much capital it would take to raise it … but at a minimum you and your coworkers should feel very free to ignore these requests. If enough of you do that, hopefully whoever is organizing these will get the message.

Related:
my office wants us to chip in to send our CEO’s family on a ski trip

5. Managing my energy on days with a later start time

I work in healthcare, and my field is known for its stress levels and physical intensity. Most of my career has been spent in a consistent 8-5 schedule. However, my new job involves some days of a later start and end time, like occasional 1-8 pm days. I’ve found that I’m really used to starting my work day with a “full tank” of energy and focus at 8 am, and I’m struggling to manage my energy and focus on my 1 pm start days. I feel like my energy is peaking before I even go in to work! It’s really tough knowing that the intensity of the work day is still to come. It spikes my anxiety, and I am having trouble making that time before 1:00 either relaxing or productive, and I am also struggling to maintain all the way until 8:00.

I’d love any thoughts or ideas and how to manage this, and commiseration is welcome as well!

Let’s throw this out to readers!

The post socializing on a week-long work trip, boss’s email overload, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

Not again!

MILWAUKEE—Staring down in utter terror at his suddenly oversized pajamas, Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly panicked Wednesday after waking up 3-foot-2. “Oh, no, this is bad—this is really, really bad,” the nine-time NBA all-star said as he jumped up and down to glimpse his diminutive form in a mirror, wondering aloud in a voice two octaves higher than normal how he could possibly play in the Bucks’ regular season opener against the Wizards later that day. “This is the worst thing that could’ve happened to me, and at the worst possible time! I was 6-foot-11 when I went to bed last night. What the heck happened? My teammates are counting on me to be tall!” At press time, Antetokounmpo was seen stuffing his size-16 shoes with newspaper and gelling his hair extra high in hopes of making himself look tall enough that no one would notice.

The post Giannis Antetokounmpo Panicking After Waking Up 3-Foot-2 appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTON—In what they described as a disappointing turn in the ongoing negotiations, White House officials confirmed Wednesday that diplomatic talks had broken down between President Donald Trump and a motion-activated ghost decoration. “The president has done everything he can to find common ground with our historic ally, but the animatronic apparition refuses to cooperate,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, adding that Trump immediately raised concerns when the plastic specter showed up to the White House dressed “very disrespectfully” in filthy, tattered rags and cobwebs. “Instead of engaging in a civil conversation, the ghost just kept howling over everything the president said, repeating the phrases ‘Whooo goes there?’ and ‘Leave this place if you want to live!’ The president approached the creepy skull-faced wraith several times with generous, multibillion-dollar offers but was met with nothing more than a frantic waving of bony arms. We do not take these insults lightly, and America will not back down.” Diplomatic observers warned the breakdown in relations could threaten U.S. interests, allowing the giant hairy spider with red LED eyes to swoop in and increase its soft power across the globe.

The post Diplomatic Talks Break Down Between Trump, Motion-Activated Ghost Decoration appeared first on The Onion.

Prince Andrew relinquished all of his royal titles, including Duke of York, amid ongoing public scrutiny over his ties to disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. What do you think?

The post Prince Andrew Surrenders Royal Titles appeared first on The Onion.

October has been a month of milestones for the Barron’s Branch redevelopment project, the first phase in the city of Waco’s 100-acre, 20-year downtown redevelopment plan. On Oct. 6, the Waco City Council approved $32.2 million to acquire the Indian Spring Middle School campus for that phase, which features park amenities and mixed-use development around […]

The post Waco is about to spend $167M to reshape downtown. Here’s what to know, and how to weigh in appeared first on The Waco Bridge.

Happy Birthday, OpenBSD

7.8

P. FISH is growing cabbages. A special agent appears from nowhere.

Agent: "Mister Fish? Mister P. Fish? The ocean needs you for a job."

P. FISH opens the agent's envelope: 7.8

https://analognowhere.com/_/ohttxi

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Here’s an update I just posted to yesterday’s piece on organized phone theft rings in London:

I forgot to apply one of the core tenets of Brian Kernighan’s wonderful book Millions, Billions, Zillions ($19 in hardcover from Amazon; BookShop.org link to indie booksellers): always do some back-of-the-envelope double-checking of the math in news stories. 1.5 miles of aluminum (or even aluminium) foil from Costco is just 12 rolls at 200 meters each. I wouldn’t blink my eyes at someone with a dozen rolls of foil in the cart at Costco.

We wish you a Merry Anders.

The Louvre Museum in Paris closed temporarily after thieves broke in and stole several priceless Napoleon-era jewels, the brazen seven-minute raid taking place just after the world’s most-visited museum opened. What do you think?

The post Priceless Jewels Stolen From Louvre In Daytime Raid appeared first on The Onion.